Is this the most interesting NHL All-Star Game of all-time?

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Is this the most interesting NHL All-Star Game of all-time?

Maybe it's time we realized all the controversy surrounding this year's All-Star Game will make it the most fun in years.

There’s something surreal about the NHL’s all-star festivities this time around. And that’s saying a lot. This event, after all, birthed the glowing puck, North America versus the World and Alex Ovechkin on a breakaway with two sticks and a pair of sunglasses. But Nashville might be hosting the strangest, most memorable edition yet.

Live, gritty country music plays from every window, door and crevice on Music City’s famous Broadway Street. Friendly citizens ask about “the hawkey game” in charming southern accents. Velveeta cheese cascades from a fountain at the Fan Fest. Every All-Star Game has a culture of fun enveloping it, but Nashville feels unique. It doesn’t blend with the sport as seamlessly as wintery cities like Chicago or New York or Ottawa might – and that’s a good thing. The contrast is fun. Aaron Ekblad talks about singing karaoke later (Call Me Maybe). P.K. Subban says he already has (Folsom Prison Blues). Matt Duchene and Johnny Gaudreau, massive country music fans, soak in the atmosphere. Duchene hopes he gets a chance to jam on his guitar.

And beneath the giddiness emanating from every player’s smile – or the gap where Brent Burns’ used to be – there’s a current of controversy. Every reporter attending media day at Bridgestone Arena Friday parts like the Red Sea when big John Scott enters, all 6-foot-8 of him, kicking off the sideshow. His Players’ Tribune article is the talk of the weekend, inspiring the same kind of slow-cap reverence as Jerry Maguire's memo. Scott's piece reveals that the NHL asked him if his children would be proud of him participating in the All-Star Game after fans voted him in. That was his last-straw moment. It's must-read material. Not all the players have seen it yet, but many want to.

“It’s the first thing I’m going to do when I leave here,” Ekblad said.

We’ve heard and read pretty much everything Scott has to say on the subject now. It’s fascinating, though, to hear other all-star participants speak out. They’re decidedly…not neutral. They’re making a concerted effort to rally around Scott, and not just guys like Burns who have been his teammates before. “It’s great that he’s here,” said Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson. “I met him yesterday. He’s a super nice guy. He knows a lot of guys here already, and that shows he’s been around for a while. It’s not always what you do on the ice skill-wise that shows how well-liked you are. And he’s one of the prime examples of that. He expected to be here, and he is, which is great.”

Florida Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo is borderline mad about the whole thing. He wishes Scott could participate in every single Skill Competition event, too. “They voted him in! Let him play! I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal,” Luongo said. “The guy has worked tremendously hard to get where he is.”

And Dallas Stars left winger Jamie Benn believes Scott’s Pacific Division teammates will rally around him Sunday when it’s time for, gulp, 3-on-3. “I think guys on his team are going to be passing him the puck quite a bit and giving the fans what they want,” Benn said.

Whatever happens, it’s telling that we’re still talking about this, all of us, the media, the players, the fans. When was the last time an all-star weekend had us holding our collective breath in anticipation this way?

And Scott’s story isn’t the only fascinating one happening in Nashville. New Jersey Devils’ goaltender Cory Schneider spoke about taking a leadership role in the movement to alter goalie equipment through the NHL-NHL Players’ Association’s competition committee, working closely with league goaltending supervisor Kay Whitmore. At this stage, Schneider has to be deliberately vague about the adjustments, as they involve very specific angles and measurements, but he’s confident we’ll see some real changes. He singles out the chest protector. He believes equipment is indeed the area of the game to tweak if we want more scoring, and he says he’ll do everything in his power to ensure no one changes the size of the nets. He doesn’t mind if his stats dip for the worse as a result of an equipment change. He points out that the 1980s statistical standard can’t be compared to today’s, either, so he’s comfortable with a new era.

Schneider was approached to take part in the equipment design process and relished the opportunity.

“I like to be a part of what’s going on,” he said. “I don’t simply want to be told what’s happening and not really understand what’s being done. It directly impacts my career, my future, so when I got the opportunity to have a say, to be a part of it, I said sure. Why wouldn’t I want to know or be involved in this process?”

He believes the potential changes will standardize equipment more so that, as much as possible, goalies’ proportions are the same across the league.

“Goaltending is an inherently insecure position,” he said. “You’re always checking your stuff. You look down at the other end of the ice, and you see a guy and think, ‘Why does he look a lot bigger than I do when I know he’s 40 pounds lighter than me’?”

So we’ve got an enforcer one short sleep a way from revolutionizing the skills competition. We’ve got a cerebral goaltender working hard to change the sport. We’ve got 43 year-old Jaromir Jagr on the same Atlantic squad as 19-year-old Panthers teammate Ekblad, who tells us “Jagr scored his 200th goal… the day I was born.” Interesting stories pop up left and right here in Music City. It sure seems like this is going to be the best All-Star Game in a long time. So maybe it’s time to stop calling it a joke and start appreciating it.

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Passion drives Boston College coach Jerry York to go old school

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Passion drives Boston College coach Jerry York to go old school

Faced with the prospect of not being able to fly to a game this weekend, Jerry York wasn't about to let that stop him from coaching Boston College.

Back in the late 1970s, Jerry York was the youngest coach in the nation. Now he’s the second oldest, behind Red Berenson, who turned 77 yesterday. York is in his 45th season behind the bench of a Division I team and he’s coached a mind-boggling 1,740 games. He’s won 1,025 of them, which is exactly 100 ahead of Ron Mason, who’s No. 2 on the all-time wins list. He’s guided five national championship teams and put countless players in the NHL, from Hall of Famer Rob Blake to current NHLers such as Johnny Gaudreau, Cory Schneider, Brian Boyle and Patrick Eaves.

In other words, he had perhaps earned the right to sit this one out. The 71-year-old dean of Division I hockey could have told associate coach Greg Brown to take the bench for one night. But faced with the prospect of not being able to fly to South Bend, Ind., to coach his Boston College Eagles against Notre Dame Saturday night because he’s recovering from surgery to repair a detached retina, York instead went old school for the 900-mile, 18-hour journey.

While the rest of the team chartered out of Boston Friday afternoon for a 90-minute flight, York had his director of hockey operations, John Hegarty, drive him to Albany Thursday afternoon. From there, York hopped an Amtrak train bound for South Bend that got in at about 8:30 Friday morning. And the most stunning thing about all of this is that York did this coach one game, not a weekend series. In fact, he figures Saturday night’s game will go until about 10 p.m., which means he’ll be able to take an Uber from the Compton Family Ice Arena to catch the midnight train that will let him retrace his steps, meaning he should get back to Boston sometime Sunday evening.

York missed six games early in the season while he was recovering from the surgery, but wasn’t about to sit any more out. So there he’ll be Saturday night, behind the Eagles bench, sporting an eye-patch and trying to help his team improve on its 8-0-1 record in Hockey East. It’s already the best start of any team in league history, but that’s not what is motivating him. It’s the passion for coaching that still drives him.

“All I need is a parrot on my right shoulder and I’ll be a buccaneer,” York said. “I think for me, this was a telltale sign that I still want to do this, that I have the passion to do it. This was a key indicator, if I didn’t want to do it I think that would be telling me something. I see Red Berenson at coaching conferences and we both like golf and other things, but I’d still rather be coaching than doing anything else. I love being behind the bench and I love tying up my skates at 2:30 every day.”

And York has a lot to be excited about this season. Despite losing seven players to the NHL from last year’s team, the Eagles have been a Hockey East juggernaut this season. Despite losing seven underclassmen to the NHL, the Eagles are the top team in their league and with an overall record of 13-5-1 has them the No. 4-ranked team in the nation. They’re second in the NCAA in goals scored with 71 and their goal differential of plus-30 is No. 1 in the nation.

“We have 13 freshmen this year,” York said. “That’s a lot of new guys. We were prepared to lose maybe three guys (to the NHL), but we got surprised and we had to scramble. We had to almost rebuild the whole program.”

It has helped that freshman Joe Woll, a third-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs, has more than filled the void left by Demko. The 6-foot-4, 202-pound native of St. Louis has been the team’s backbone and a large reason why the Eagles have given up only nine first-period goals in 19 games this season. They’re also outscoring their opponents 28-12 in the second period. The Eagles are led offensively by a small, skilled kid by the name of Gaudreau from New Jersey, just as they were two years ago. Matthew Gaudreau, whose brother Johnny won the Hobey Baker Award with the Eagles three years ago and turned pro with the Calgary Flames, leads the team with 6-16-22 totals in 19 games.

“This isn’t the most talented team I’ve ever had,” York said, “but it’s the most enjoyable for me to coach in a long time.”

The game against Notre Dame will be the last before the holidays. That means York won’t have to get on a plane until a trip to Pittsburgh after Christmas. He sees his doctor Dec. 23 and hopes to be cleared to fly after that. If not, he’ll likely be on the train to Pittsburgh because he’s not about to let a long travel day keep him from behind the bench.

“It’s not in my fabric,” he said of the prospect of missing games. “I feel just like Punch Imlach.”

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ECHL defenseman Anthony Calabrese is “lucky to be alive” after a “careless, reckless” hit, and Tyler Murovich, who delivered the blow, has been given a 12-game suspension as a first-time offender.

There are few plays scarier than seeing a player hit from behind and sent headfirst into the boards. That kind of play is made that much harder to watch when knowing the severity of the injury suffered.

During an ECHL contest on Nov. 24 between the Norfolk Admirals and Atlanta Gladiators, ECHL veteran Tyler Murovich delivered an incredibly dangerous shove to the back of Anthony Calabrese, a 24-year-old defenseman who’s only 12 games into his ECHL career.

The result of the hit was frightening. Calabrese was left laying face down on the ice, near motionless. The Admirals rearguard would eventually be placed on a stretcher, taken from the ice and transported to hospital.

That may seem harsh to some given that Murovich is a first-time offender, but given the severity of Calabrese’s injury, it actually seems like a somewhat light punishment.

As a result of the hit, Calabrese suffered broken C7 and T1 vertebrae. In simpler terms, he broke both his neck and his back. Oh, and he also punctured his lung. In fact, Calabrese told The Virginian-Pilot’s Jim Hodges that doctors told the young center that he’s “lucky to be alive.”

“It was a miracle, and they say I’m going to make a full recovery,” Calabrese told Hodges. “It’s going to be a long road, but I’d rather be alive than be in a wheelchair the rest of my life.”

What helped Calabrese escape with his life, he told Hodges, was advice he had gotten early in his career from a high school coach. Calabrese was taught that if he was ever going into the boards head first to lift his chin and turn to the side in an attempt to avoid taking the brunt of the impact with the top of his head.

“That’s honestly the only thing that registered in my mind when I was going in: at the last minute, pick my head up,” Calabrese told Hodges. “I remember picking my head up and turning it to the right.”

Thankfully, doctors told Calabrese that he can eventually return to the ice and that the injuries suffered from the hit won’t cost him his career. His spinal cord, he told Hodges, wasn’t damaged due to the hit. And, as hard as it may be to believe, doctors said it was the “best possible break” in a situation such as Calabrese’s.

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At least two teams are reportedly interested in acquiring the Sedins for their full cap hit and Canucks veterans could draw interest at the trade deadline. The Kings are looking to clear cap space by moving out Teddy Purcell.

The ongoing struggles of the Vancouver Canucks this season generated some speculation over possible roster moves.

By late-November, The Province's Jason Botchford suggested the Canucks could get an early start on deciding which players to move by the March 1 trade deadline. He felt veterans such as Ryan Miller, Alex Edler, Alexandre Burrows and perhaps even Daniel and Henrik Sedin could be on the move.

Botchford said he knows of two teams that would be willing to acquire the Sedins for their full combined salary-cap hit of $14 million. If the Canucks were to pick up part of that cap hit (which runs through 2017-18), he thinks more clubs would be interested.

The sticking point, of course, is the Sedins' willingness to be traded. So far, they've given no indication that they want out of Vancouver. As Botchford points out, such a move would likely have to take place in the off-season.

Even if the Canucks put the Sedins on the block, they're unlikely to fetch a significant return. While they're still putting up solid numbers (17 points in 26 games), the 36-year-old twins are well past their prime. Teams aren't going to give up a lot for a couple of fading stars. Picks and prospects, sure, but nothing that would immediately reverse the Canucks' fortunes.

As for Miller, he and Canucks management could be willing to work out a contract extension. Botchford's collegue Ben Kuzma doubts the Canucks place the 36-year-old goalie on the block by the trade deadline.

Kuzma notes Miller's stats aren't great this season. However, he feels he'll still be a good fit with Jacob Markstrom, buying some time until promising goalie prospect Thatcher Demko is ready to move up. He wonders if Miller might be agreeable to a two- or three-year deal worth between $4-$4.5 million per season. That's a significant pay cut from Miller's current $6-million annual salary.

Considering Miller's no longer an elite goaltender, he probably won't get much better than that on the open market. He could test next summer's free-agent market, but will likely find few decent offers. He could prefer to avoid uncertainty over his future by staying in Vancouver for a reasonable contract.

KINGS TRYING TO FREE SPACE WITH PURCELL MOVE

Los Angeles Kings left wing Teddy Purcell cleared waivers over the weekend. Signed as a free agent last summer to a one-year, $1.6-million contract, the 31-year-old managed only two points in 12 games this season. Illness and a lower-body injury sidelined him in October, and he was a healthy scratch in the Kings' last four games.

With 21 of 30 NHL teams carrying $2 million or less in cap space, moving Purcell's cap hit is difficult right now. The Kings obviously want to shed his salary without taking any back in a deal. They could be waiting until later in the season to find the right deal.

Rumor Roundup appears regularly only on thehockeynews.com. Lyle Richardson has been an NHL commentator since 1998 on his website, spectorshockey.net, and is a contributing writer for Eishockey News and The Guardian (P.E.I.).For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.

Holland had been left in Toronto as the Maple Leafs opened a three-game western road trip in late November and has not suited up for the Leafs since Nov. 26. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound forward was a healthy scratch in 17 of the Leafs first 25 games this season.

In eight games, Holland has one assist and a minus-2 rating while averaging 10:43 in ice time a night. Holland is on a one-year, $1.3 million contract this season, and according to CapFriendly, is owed $881,111 for the remainder of the season.

"Peter is a big, solid centerman with good NHL experience," Coyotes general manager John Chayka said in a statement. "We look forward to having him join our team."

Acquired from the Anaheim Ducks in November 2013, the Caledon, Ontario native appeared in 174 games with the Leafs, over parts of four seasons, scoring 25 goals and 63 points.

The 25-year-old also played a role in the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies reaching a seventh game of the conference finals during the 2014 Calder Cup playoffs.

For the Leafs, the move gives general manager Lou Lamoriello another contract spot to work with. Prior to the deal, Toronto had 48 contracts – two shy of the maximum of 50.

Friday’s move gives the Leafs the flexibility to sign goaltender Karri Ramo to a contract for the remainder of the season. The 30-year-old signed a professional tryout with the Marlies on Tuesday and made 33 saves in 3-2 loss to the Utica Comets on Wednesday night.

Since waiving goaltender Jhonas Enroth on Tuesday, and assigning him to the Marlies, the Leafs are looking for a suitable veteran presence behind Frederik Andersen and Ramo could fill the void.

The trade with the Coyotes also gives Lamoriello roster flexibility to activate forward Josh Leivo off non-roster injury reserve. Leivo has yet to play this season due to a lower body injury. The 23-year-old played five games with the Marlies earlier in the season as part of a conditioning assignment, but was deemed not ready to return to NHL action with the Leafs.